SHoP Architects wins Botswana Innovation Hub competition

US-based SHoP Architects has won the international competition to design the Botswana Innovation Hub, a 25100 m2 office and research building in Gabarone.

The Botswana Innovation Hub will provide office and laboratory space for "technology-driven and knowledge-intensive" foreign and local businesses, according to the Botswana government, as well as research and advanced training institutes.

The building is also designed to be "an iconic symbol" of Botswana's support for research and development and the promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship, and will act as "a nexus for knowledge creation and innovation".

With the client calling for an iconic, timeless but environmentally sensitive building SHoP's design uses a variety of sustainable techniques; including a concept SHoP calls the "Energy Blanket" roofscape.

This combines passive and active sustainable energy techniques by incorporating large overhangs to passively shade the building's interior volumes, mechanisms to collect and re-use water, and both passive and active photovoltaic systems to harness solar energy.

This combination is expected to offset "at least half" of the building's operational energy costs, according to SHoP.

The design also includes a low-maintenance roof garden that collects and filters rainwater, which is used in the roof garden and bioswales - landscape elements designed to remove silt and pollution from surface runoff water - downstream in the courtyards.